Nashville's homicides top 107 in 2017: 'The pain won't ever stop'

Tika Begley talks about her loss after her daughter Debrianah Begley was killed in October at the James Cayce Public Housing Development.
Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean

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Friends and family try to comfort Tika Begley as they close her daughter Debrianah Begley's casket during the funeral at the Bethesda Original Church of God in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, October 14, 2017.(Photo: Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean)Buy Photo

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated on Jan. 1, to include two additional killings on Dec. 31.

Every morning last fall, Tika Begley would walk out of her second-story apartment, down a set of concrete stairs and relive the horror.

Just feet from the final step is where she held her dying 16-year-old daughter after the girl was caught in a hail of gunfire that broke out between two groups of young men outside her home in the James Cayce public housing development in East Nashville.

"The pain won't ever stop," said Begley, whose daughter Deberianah Begley is one of 107 people who died as the result of criminal homicide this year in Nashville. "I just can't get away from it. Who here can?"

The number marked the most killings in the city since 112 people died in 1997 — the highest number of criminal homicides in modern city history, Metro Nashville Police Department records show. The lowest number took place in 2014 when 41 people were slain.

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Debrianah Begley's grandmother Aretha Perkins Begley and mother Tika Begley comfort each other as they view her at the Revelation Funeral Home in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, October 12, 2017.(Photo: Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean)

In 2016, 83 people were killed.

“Far too many people buried their loved ones as victims of gun violence in our community this year, and far too many of those victims were children," Mayor Megan Barry said. "Every life lost is a loss for each of us — and a call to action."

The breakdown

Police divide the city into eight precincts, each with its own commander, and compile data for each. Here's how many homicides each precinct investigated:

North Precinct, 25

East Precinct, 22

South Precinct, 21

Hermitage Precinct,17

Midtown Precinct, 8

Madison Precinct, 8

West Precinct, 5

Central Precinct, 1

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Tika Begley hugs teddy bears as she sits among her daughters collection at her new home in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, Nov. 27, 2017.(Photo: Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean)

Of those killed, 88 were men. All but 40 were African-American. Nearly 90 percent died as a result of gunfire.

The youngest gunshot victims were 14-year-old boys who died in unrelated shootings. The youngest child was less than a year old and died as result of abuse.

The bloodiest months started mid year. In May 12 people were killed — all from gunfire — followed by 15 in June and 14 in July. Fourteen people also died in December.

Meanwhile, a mass shooting in September rocked the Nashville community and left one woman, 38-year-old Melanie Crow Smith, dead when police say a masked man opened fire on Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch.

The suspect, 26-year-old Emanuel Samson, remains jailed without bond on a homicide charge.

"I think the increase in total, you can look at most every major city across the U.S. and see one. It's a societal problem," Metro police Chief Steve Anderson said.

"Nashville as a whole is a safe community and if you're not associated with people prone to criminal activity your probability of being a victim to crime is very small," Anderson said, noting nearly every 2017 homicide victim has some tie to the perpetrator.

"Obviously, a lot are drug related. We also have some domestic-related killings which have picked up (12 over last year's seven)," he said. "Especially troubling is the kids involved."

"We're a growing city so we've got to grow the police department along side it," he said, emphasizing Nashville's need for additional officers. "We can't police a population that's increasing without more officers."

'A better path'

In addition to Begley, 10 others were killed in or near Cayce Homes, including one other teenager girl, Vastoria Lucus. The 19-year-old girl was gunned down less than a block from where Begley died.

The night she was killed, Begley had been sitting on her porch on South Eighth Street, police said. She tried to run for cover, but police say she was killed in a barrage of bullets fired between two groups of young men in the courtyard of the public housing complex.

Four people have been charged with criminal homicide in her death — Tomaz Kerley, 23; Mohamed Miray, 21; Jamarius Hill, 16, and one of the girl's next door neighbors, Antonio Gorden-Jenkins, 17.

The investigation remains active.

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Tika Begley kisses her daughters casket blanket that hangs in the hall on her new home in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, Nov. 27, 2017.(Photo: Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean)

Over the summer, the department began an initiative in Cayce Homes that provides extra duty officers patrolling on foot in attempt to form relationships with residents and deter crime. That initiative is funded by the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency.

“We are just beginning to replicate that same type of program in the Napier Sudekum public housing off Lafayette Street," Aaron said.

The mayor's office also funded 70 new police officers in 2017.

“We’ve also worked with Davidson County Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway to implement restorative justice programs that will set kids on a better path," Barry said. "As we move into 2018, we’ve already started to look at additional resources, strategies and tools we can deploy to reverse the violent trends we’ve experienced this year.”

'I had to get away from it'

One month after her daughter's death, Tika Begley and her 13-year-old son Danquan, packed up their home and moved across town. She couldn't deal with looking at the spot her daughter died.

She couldn't bear seeing the family of one of the teenagers accused of killing her child.

She couldn't risk her son being the next Nashville homicide victim.

"I had to get away from it," she said on a cold winter day while visiting her daughter's grave at Greenwood North Cemetery.

Tears streamed down her face as she stood near the plot of fresh earth covered with fall foliage and balloons, clutching her son close, her arm tightly wrapped around his body.

As she walked away, she vowed to do everything in her power to make sure her son and others don't fall victim to her daughter's fate.

"I'll attend every meeting on gun control," she said. "I'll go to every court hearing. I'll visit every mother whose child dies. I'll do whatever it takes to make sure justice is served."

Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.